Best Intentions
by VegasGirl09
Summary: Finn and Nick, established relationship, post-coma. Old memories are brought up in an unusual way.


Julie Finlay hated mornings; that was an absolute given fact throughout her entire life. Wake her up early and risk being mauled viciously with swearing and pillows to your face. That was even more likely to happen these days since surviving the Gig Harbor Killer attack and spending a month in a coma. Waking up for work at any time of the day was difficult for her. Going to sleep at the end of a long shift was a relief. She didn't let that crippling exhaustion ruin her though. With Nick in San Diego most of the time, visits from him in Vegas were always a treat and she didn't waste a single second of their time together.

So naturally, when he flew in for the weekend, surprising her at the lab, grinning smugly at her when he saw the look of shock on her face upon seeing him, then catching her in his arms when she jumped in them, kissing her until people around them started to stare, the next thing she wanted to do was go home and be with him.

After dinner at his/their place, walking Sam around the neighborhood, snuggles on the couch watching T.V and a jaunt in the bedroom, they both passed out, exhausted from work, travel and in Julie's case the leftover coma effects.

The next morning Nick found himself in a position he hated, awake before her and anxious to spend time with her while she continued to sleep, buried under all the blankets. Waking her up was dangerous, he knew, but luckily, today all she needed was a kiss to her forehead and the promise of breakfast to squirm under the covers, showing him she was awake and would be downstairs shortly.

Once he left the room, she sighed, still happy to be wrapped in warm blankets and perfectly content with staying in bed all day. But she knew their time was limited and sleeping the day away was foolish. With over exaggerated stretches and sleepy sighs, she forced herself to move, peeling back the covers and sitting up in bed.

Despite falling asleep in her favorite Seattle Seahawks shirt and running shorts, she felt cold, shivering slightly without the warm blankets to wrap around her. She glanced over at the open closet where she had only just started to move some of her clothes into. Most of it was work outfits that wouldn't suffice so she had to dig around towards the back of it for something casual to wear. When her hand brushed against something covered in plastic she figured it must be something clean and new of Nick's that had been at the drycleaners.

Sure enough there were a few shirts covered in plastic. Most were dressy looking but one was a T-shirt that she could actually use. She slid the shirt out of the plastic and threw it on over her current outfit. It fell to her knees and felt like a dress but she loved it. The logo said WLVU so she figured it had been a souvenir he picked up from watching those games over the years. Plus he was always teasing her about her Seattle gear, now she could borrow something that belonged to a team he liked.

Feeling much warmer now, she ignored the unmade bed and went straight downstairs to the kitchen, wincing when she stepped barefoot on the cold tile floor but grinning when she saw him at the counter making breakfast for them. At first he didn't hear or see her enter the room. It was only when he felt her wrap her arms around him did he smile and turn to greet her properly.

"About time," he teased of her sleeping in so late.

"I had to change," she told him, waving her hands at her hastily thrown together outfit.

He caught site of the shirt she was wearing and his smiled faded.

"Honey," he said gently "where did you get that?"

"Your closet," she said grinning as she swayed back and forth, her arms still around him "I know how much you hate my Seattle stuff so I stole this, happy now?"

He didn't know what to say to her or how to explain it to her. All that came out was "Babe, that's not mine."

"What do you mean?" she asked confused as to why he was being so weird "it was in the closet."

"I know," he sighed "but listen, you remember my friend Warrick?"

"Of course," she said sadly.

"Well, after he died, we uh- donated a lot of his stuff to charity" Nick explained "we gave a few things to Tina and Eli after the funeral but we also kinda took a few things for ourselves, just clothes and stuff that we saw him wear a lot, he loved WLVU and we went to a lot of the games so-

She didn't need to hear anymore of his story to know what he was saying. She looked at him then down at the shirt and uttered "No" horrified at what she had done.

Nick nodded to confirm the story and she leapt away from him now feeling embarrassed and stupid. Her face grew hot with shame and guilt as she took in this information. _That's_ why it had been wrapped in plastic. God she felt like an idiot.

"I'm so stupid," she lashed out, hitting her forehead with the palm of her hand.

"Whoa, stop it," Nick said grabbing at her hand "don't do that, your coma remember?"

"Oh who cares?" she snapped tearfully "clearly it screwed me up bad! You know when girlfriends raid their boyfriends closets and steal their clothes they do it to be cute but when _I_ do it _I_ end up grabbing the one thing that belonged to your _dead best friend_!"

She cried the last words and turned away from him as tears fell.

"Oh come on," he tried to soothe her "it was an accident that's all."

"You know that's all I am," she cried " a walking accident, I'm just gonna go home, maybe back to the hospital so they can knock me back in that coma and I can never ruin your life again."

She was clearly overreacting now but it broke his heart all the same. She turned to leave the kitchen, tugging one arm out of the sleeve of the shirt but he stopped her from going by grabbing her arm and pulling her back to him with more force than he meant to.

"Hey" he said sternly "where do you get off thinking and saying stuff like that?"

"It's true," she said wrenching her arm out of his grip.

"It is not," he snapped "and I don't ever want to hear you say that again."

It wasn't like him to be so stern but she was stubborn and needed to be told she was not at fault for this.

"Well what am I supposed to think?" she asked him, crossing her arms "I can't even wear clothes without digging up some deep personal tragedy."

"I told you it was an accident," he said "it's not your fault and I'm not upset, do you understand?"

Julie swayed tentatively and mumbled "I guess"

"Good," Nick said "now can you please come here and let me hug you cause you're breaking my heart darling."

Darling, she thought, he had never called her that before. Her heart broke just looking at him, standing there with open arms ready to embrace her. She cursed her stubbornness, took two steps and collided with him, crashing against him and letting him hold her, whispering "I'm sorry" as an apology for what had just happened.

"Don't be," he soothed her, rocking her gently "your heart was in the right place, I know it"

"Besides," he continued "it looks great on you"

"Really?" she asked lifting her head from his chest to look at him.

"Yes," he assured her wiping away the tears that had soaked her face.

"So Warrick liked WLVU?" she inquired now.

"Yeah he loved that school," Nick said thinking of his friend and their time spent watching football games.

Julie realized just how little she knew about the former CSI, only how to skirt around discussing him the last few years.

"Can you tell me about him?" she asked now.

"Sure," he said "what do you want to know?"

Julie looked at him and said confidently "Everything"

Nick made her calm down a bit more and waited for her to take off the WLVU shirt at her insistence so she wouldn't ruin it from crying all over it before he settled with her in his lap on the couch in the living room to talk. He launched into stories about Warrick from their first case together, to the night he died.

"McKeen left him to die in that alley," Nick concluded bitterly "Grissom was there, he died in his arms"

"No," Julie breathed horrified at the thought, never really knowing the details of that night until now.

"Yeah that's when everything got messed up," Nick said thinking back to those darker moments when it seemed that his world was crumbling in around him. "but we got through it, and we're okay now."

He patted her leg gently but she was lost in thoughts of how terrifying that must have been for the team and how she wished she could bring Warrick back somehow.

"He sounds like a wonderful person," she concluded laying her head on his shoulder.

"He was," Nick said "I miss him everyday"

They both fell silent for a moment, lost in different thoughts but holding one another comfortingly.

"Would he have liked me?" she asked now "would he have liked us together?"

"Definitely," Nick assured her with a kiss to her forehead "you would have been his first pick for teams for the baseball games and stuff we did after work."

She smiled at that revelation and how he was able to immediately categorize her into his world even back then.

"But if he was still here," Nick continued "you and Russell and Morgan probably wouldn't have joined our team and we never would have met and that makes me sad."

"Yeah I'd be pretty miserable without you and the guys," she added. "Isn't it weird how life works like that?"

He pondered her words for a moment. He didn't want to think of a life without her in it. He missed Warrick terribly and loved the times they had together but Julie had shown him a new life, one that was bright, full of laughter and lots of love, more love than he could have ever imagined. She was still talking about life and connections and people and his heart ached watching her and listening to her. He hugged her suddenly and she fell silent.

"I love you," he said, his voice faltering with emotions "so much."

"I love you too," she said hugging back, grateful for him everyday, for his love and support, for fighting for her and being there after her coma.

They stayed together on the couch, safe in each others arms. Nick glanced over to the bookshelf near the T.V where a picture of the team sat in a frame, one taken in 2008 shortly before Warrick died. He smiled thinking of Warrick watching over him and everyone else he cared about and knowing they were all at peace, able to embrace new people like Julie with open arms and all the love they had to give.

A/N- I'm experimenting with writing Nick and Julie together and this idea had been floating around my head for a while. Nick and Warrick were such good friends and if he was still alive I know he would have loved having Julie around and loved how happy she would make Nick. The three of them hanging out and being friends would have been sweet to see but I also wondered how Warrick's death would impact Nick even years later when this idea came to me. It mixes past with present and shows that even in the tragedy of Nick losing Warrick, some good (Julie Finlay) came out of that.


End file.
